Draceth
by HermioneMew
Summary: This is parts 1 and 4. ronethdragon (no space) wrote parts 2 and 3. R/R please! Thank you! =)
1. The Rescue (Part I)

Draceth  
by the insane h/m  
  
Dedicated to Roneth Dragon, Dede's big sister, who should be signing up soon, with her fabulous story, "A Dragon Named Silketh". Keep on searching for her, you'll find her very, very, soon! ^________________^  
  
A/N: Crane, my mom said we ain't ending our summer vacation without you and Dede coming over. Possibly together. ^_____________________^   
  
A/N II: PikaCheeka, you will L*U*V this! It involves lots of dragons!  
  
Disclaimer: Roneth Dragon owns the dragons. I suppose Galileo owns Draco (the constellation) since he discovered the universe...whatever...I'm weird...don't ever put an owner on every single element of your fic...it gets confusing...J.K. Rowling owns Draco. There, I'm done with the stupid disclaimer. Ya happy now?  
  
Draco couldn't sleep. He knew very well why, unlike most times. For the last few months, there had been something he really wanted to do. He had to. But it certainly wouldn't fly well with his family. What would they think if he did it? The trouble was, he couldn't warn them. They wouldn't let him. Well, he had to do it himself. Draco climbed out of bed and pushed the door open a crack.  
  
He glanced around warily for servants or house-elves. There were none in sight. He pressed himself against the wall and snuck down the hall to his parents' room. Once there, he didn't dare go in. He knelt at the door, clasped his hands, and said a short prayer for their souls once they found out what he wanted to do. That done, Draco continued down the hallway to a curtained balcony. He carefully parted the gauzy black curtain and strode out onto the cold stones. It was a very beautiful summer night. One could get an unusually clear view of the stars.   
  
Draco looked up at the infinite clusters of stars, looking for his favorite constellation, the Draco. He found it, the half-formed four-legged snake among the brilliant balls of gas that made up the cosmos. The stars' twinkling gave the dragon an odd slithering effect. Draco refused to look away from it, eyes locked on the hypnotizing movements.   
  
It looked so happy, that dragon. It never had any worries or reprimands. All it had to do was appear in the sky every night. Why wasn't Draco a star in the constellation? He could have been. But no, he was born an earth-bound human. His heart had hardened towards all mankind years ago. Nobody loved him. Not even his parents. He once thought they did. But they had both attempted to seduce him to the Dark Side.  
  
He didn't want to be evil. When would they understand? He was quasi-evil, true, but he didn't want to murder people, to laugh at others' misfortune. That was the trouble with people. All they care about is themselves. They all want their way, even if it involves hurting people. Draco only had no kind words for Potter, Weasley, and Granger because he had been taught to emulate his parents' behavior.   
  
Another example of a typical human; his parents wanted Draco to be their carbon copy, even at the expense of his conscience. He would have been only too glad to leave Potter and his friends alone. What had they ever done to him? They didn't really care about his opinion anyway. What was the point of existing in this unfair world he and his family had worked themselves into?  
  
Draco held the railing of the balcony, craning his neck to get a better view at the dragon. The two stars representing its eyes flashed slightly. Draco sighed wistfully and began pacing from one side of the balcony to the other. He leaned against a gargoyle, a granite one with large reptilian wings, two taloned hands pressed onto its squatting knees, and its lips pulled back into a state of sickly, joyful dementia. Draco sighed again, and for the first time since the idea had leaked into his mind, he sank to his knees and cried.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Silketh the dragoness stretched out across her stone cave floor. She closed her eyes and playfully swatted at her partner, Falgareth, already used to his hi-jinx. Too late. He leaned down and licked her with his electric-blue tongue. Silketh sat up, her paw raised.  
^^Wasn't me^^ Falgareth told his wife telepathetically.  
^^Sure it wasn't^^ she answered, her thoughts sounding rather sardonic.  
Falgareth smiled.  
^^C'mere, Silketh^^ he told her.  
Silketh got up curiously and leaned close to him.  
^^Yes, Falgareth^^  
Falgareth torched her lightly.  
^^Why you! How dare you^^ She thought, in mock fury.  
^^Betcha can't catch me^^ crowed Falgareth, charging off around the cave. At that moment, Saroneth and Lilieth's shadows showed up in the cave mouth.  
  
^^Yo, Mom, wassup^^ asked Princess Saroneth, pushing past Silketh and going to get herself some water.  
^^Yeah, wassup^^ added Lilieth, grabbing the water and squirting her big sister with it.  
The four of them somehow got tangled into a wrestling match until Saroneth sat up on her haunches, eyes frantically darting around.  
^^What's wrong, Saroneth^^ asked Falgareth.  
^^I--I'm getting one of those headaches again. I think I had better go check the--the Dragon's Eye^^ she replied, bounding up the stone stairs to her and Lilieth's room.  
^^I'm coming too^^ declared Lilieth, gallivanting up after her sister.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Draco stopped crying abruptly, looking around worriedly. He had this odd sensation someone was watching him. A mild panic began coldly in his throat. Would anyone see what he was doing? Or planning to? He stood up and parted the curtain, peeking around with one eye. There was nobody there. Only the shadows. Draco calmed down and headed back for the railing.  
  
He didn't know how he'd gotten the sudden burst of intuition. It was sort of like how cats can tell if their water is fresh or how bats can tell where to fly merely by echoes. Lately, Draco had started to feel less like a person and more one with the animals. He loved them. They didn't change who you were, they didn't criticize you, they didn't swear, they didn't argue, and they didn't force you to do anything against your will.   
  
Unlike some people he knew.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
^^Quiet...I'm getting a vision^^ murmured Saroneth to Lilieth.  
^^What do you see? Should I bring Mom and Dad^^ she asked softly.  
^^I said quiet^^ said Saroneth sternly.  
Lilieth clammed up, fuming silently.  
Saroneth placed her paws on the magic talisman they had on their bedside table. It was a crystal dragon's eye, excavated by Sea Dragons from the Mexican Amethyst Towers and stolen away by winged demons spawned by a wizard, a social outcast who was angry with the world and everything in it.  
^^I see a human^^ began Saroneth. ^^A boy. Presumably a rich one. If he is at home. He is standing on a balcony; wait, he just sat down next to...yes, a gargoyle, and...let me read what he's thinking...he loves animals...he loves dragons...he used to love humans until someone did something terrible to him...and...wait...no...oh Lord. Lilieth, come and see this^^  
Lilieth stood on tiptoes to see Saroneth's vision.  
^^Oooh, Saroneth, he's going to kill himself! Look! Should we do something^^ squeaked Lilieth, her telepathetical voice becoming rather high from excitement.  
^^Get Mom and Dad. Now, Lilieth^^ ordered Saroneth. Lilieth flew downstairs to alert them.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Draco heaved a last sigh and looked up at the Draco. It would always be there for him. They would be together in the end, two lonely, forlorn dragons, roaming the heavens for all eternity. He climbed up on the balcony, closed his eyes, and, carefully spreading his arms, he took the fatal step off the railing.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
^^Falgareth, come with me^^ shouted Silketh telepathetically. ^^He's in trouble^^  
Falgareth obediently flew out after his wife, as they took off to the east, heading for England. They would be there in less than a second, due to their psychic powers.  
Saroneth and Lilieth poked their draconic heads out the door. Saroneth shook her head.  
^^Such a fuss over a human^^ Lilieth said, more to herself.  
^^Yes^^ agreed Saroneth.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Draco's mind was in a whirl as he fell to his doom. Everything was nothing more than an incoherent jumble of images and sounds. The only thing that was clear was the Draco. His guiding light, his touchstone. It was getting nearer, reaching its scaly claws to him. Now in a dream-like state, Draco saw himself reaching to embrace it back. He could only watch in horror as his dream self slowly turned into a large green and yellow dragon. The dragon spread its wings, shortly joined by the Draco. They flew off into the distance...  
  
Moments before he hit the ground, Silketh arrived on the scene. She grabbed Draco about a foot from the ground and hovered in the air for a second, looking at him. Draco was by now unconscious. She closed her eyes and started reading his cloudy thoughts, rather unclear because he wasn't fully awake.  
  
Falgareth approached her from behind.  
^^Is he alive^^ he asked hesitantly.  
Silketh didn't answer. She kept listening. She heard hatred, and anger, and suppressed fear, and bitter remorse. Just when she was beginning to doubt the human, she heard his last thought, the one buried in the piles of smoky refuse at the back of his mind. Hope. The one hope he didn't have to spend his life being human and despising them. The empty, yet beautiful hope someone would rescue him and love him unconditionally, for him himself, not for them. Silketh brushed a talon over him, thinking a spell, insuring he would stay unconscious long enough to go back home.  
^^Yes, Falgareth^^ she told her mate, taking off to the cave. Falgareth spread his wings and flew on after her.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Draco stirred. He had been asleep for so long. Was he dead? Up in the stars with the Draco? No. Of course not. He was dead, and nobody would miss him. He opened his eyes, afraid to.   
^^Awaken^^ whispered Silketh.  
"Where am I?" Draco half-groaned, not really having the energy to do anything. He just wanted to curl up and die.  
^^Come here^^ said Silketh, ignoring his question. She picked him up and stroked his hair. ^^You're home--^^ She paused, thinking what to call him. 'Draco' wouldn't fly well. Dragons' names ended in '-eth'. ^^Draceth^^  
Draco didn't dare question it. He had this odd notion it was his real name all along.   
"Mother," he sighed, not feeling awkward at all. Silketh laid him on the cave floor and began the long and difficult task of transforming him into one of their kind. Draco--or more appropriately, Draceth--remained very calm through the whole procedure. Silketh, Falgareth, and their daughters seemed more like a family than his human one had ever been.  
Several hours later, Silketh put her new adopted son to sleep and waited for the magic to take effect. Since he had originally been human, he couldn't be pure gold, like Silketh, who was a queen, or Lilieth, the purer of the two princesses. Saroneth had inherited her father's genes. Falgareth wasn't completely pure. He had once been a human, biased against dragons. He repented later and was turned into a dragon. He remembered nothing of being a human after all this time.  
^^Mom^^ groaned Lilieth. ^^We don't want an adopted brother^^ Saroneth nodded sullenly, eyeing Draceth, a blue-violet dragon with tinges of mint green around the edges of the wings.  
Draceth's slitted orange eyes fluttered open. He looked around warily. These dragons were his family, weren't they? Yes. Of course.  
There was a long and awkward silence.  
^^Come here, Draceth^^ muttered Silketh. Draco walked up to her, eyes flashing curiously.  
^^Yes, Mother^^  
^^Do you remember what you were before a dragon^^  
Draceth stared off into space. What did he remember...he could remember waking up in the unfamiliar setting, but before that...his mind ran into a gray shadowy block.  
^^I remember hatred. That is all^^ he answered her.  
Saroneth, Lilieth, and Falgareth walked over to where Silketh and Draco stood.  
^^There will be no more of that, Draceth, brother, I assure you^^ cooed Saroneth. Lilieth rubbed her head against him.  
Draceth nuzzled Lilieth back. He now truly felt he had a home.  
  
Finis  
  
A/N III: Did you like it? I stole the idea from Roneth Dragon. Okay, not the idea, but just the dragon family. =) Oh, yeah, Draco's (he wasn't a dragon yet) first two lines were in " " and not ^^ ^^ because he wasn't a dragon then. R/R please. Thanx ^_______________^.  



	2. The Victim (Part IV)

Draceth 4  
The Victim  
_______________  
Note: Ronethdragon (no space) wrote parts 2 and 3. ^_^  
Disclaimer: The 'square foot of earth' theory is from the book "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky.   
_______________  
  
DRACO  
~~~  
I pace up and down the stone cave floor for the thousandth time. For the past few weeks, I have just wanted to die, to collapse, to cease to exist. My body is covered with wounds, all self-inflicted. How could I?  
  
Why? Why had I attempted suicide so long ago when I was still a full-fledged human? Why did I fail to see my parents did love me? My dragon family loves me. But I feel I am a burden to them. They were forced to rescue me. Forced. Why did I cause my parents sorrow and inflict such pain on my dragon family? Why did I fail to appreciate what I had?  
  
I did not because I have no heart. I am weak. Even as a dragon, I am weak. Then I must die.  
  
Unlike the first time I sank so low I wanted to die, I didn't choose a place close to home. Instead, my life would end on a cliff some five miles away, where only the bravest or the darkest creatures dared to venture.   
  
It is interesting how some doomed to die would rather spend the rest of eternity on a square foot of earth, never resting, never moving, never living...but never dying. I, personally, would far rather die.  
  
"Father," I think, in dragon or human language I know not. In feelings, not words. "Father...Mother...forgive me. Silketh, Baraneth, Sereneth, Lilieth...forgive..."  
  
I edge off to the end of the cliff. The sea is below me, a dark and angry sea. It crashes over and over against the rocks, ever so slowly turning them into sand. Will my bones one day join those rocks? Perhaps. My spirit will soar above the tide, tearing at the winds in vain and crying to the Draco so far up in the stars. The constellation Draco. Remember it?  
  
I slide one paw off the rock, my right front paw. Then the left front. Then both hind legs. I fold my wings in close and turn into a human, a dragon, and a human again. I keep switching between transformations, not ready to die in either form...  
  
Life is left behind. My soul is leaving, to be with the Draco, with the heavens, in death.  
  
Tod, der ewige Bruderbund.  
Death, the eternal brotherhood.  
  
LUCIUS  
~~~  
Someday, when I am going to die, if I had a choice, I would pick standing right here on this square foot of cliff overlooking the sea. It would be better than death, even though I would be without companionship or distractions. Confinement is better than nothing.  
  
Draco is gone. He has left me forever, another one to reject my attempts to love. It is all my fault. I have felt this way my entire life; nobody loves me and serve me right. Narcissa...she and I are forced to love. It's infatuation, and at some times mere indifference, that is between us, not love.  
  
Love has forsaken me, as everyone and everything else has.  
  
Why go on living? I am not capable of true love. Such a human being is broken, incomplete, not worth keeping on this earth. Why?  
  
I leap off the cliff, not caring that it will hurt. Just punishment for me, really, after all the pain I've inflicted on everyone when all I wanted for them was good...  
  
Ach, ich liebe dich wie ein Kind, du süße Tod.  
Ah, I love you like a child, you sweet death.  
  
DRACO  
~~~   
As I fall to my doom, I see another form, a human one, also streak down to the sea to die. My heart stops as I recognize it.  
  
Father.  
  
He's come to kill himself. How could he? How could he leave me...after all the things he's done to me, after everything I have suffered because of him, he's just leaving? Won't he apologize?  
  
No.  
  
It's my fault. He doesn't love me, and serve me right. How could even the most loving person ever feel anything for someone as heartless as I? How? I should die, not him. No...  
  
No...  
  
Time slows down, it not stops altogether. I quickly spread my wings and hurtle down to try and save him, my last futile attempt to do a good deed.  
  
Allein umsonst.  
But in vain.  
  
LUCIUS  
~~~  
Must I suffer this torture? Why have I gone through it? It's my fault. Suicide is like that...I should have been strong, not taken a coward's way out. The damage is done. The rocks are stained red with my blood, only to be washed away by the waves.  
  
Is this how I will depart? Will I be discovered tomorrow, dead on a desolate shore, my life taken by my own hands? No...no...  
  
I have no foresight. At the very least, Draco is happy. As a dragon, he can feel love, he can have a purpose. How I long for what he has...I could have gotten it had I been worthy, but it will not happen. Humans are so futile. We try to bring nature under our power, we try to explain the supernatural, we dismiss everything we do not understand as insanity, not ingenuity.  
  
There is now only one thing I understand, as every last drop of energy is mercilessly torn from me with each passing second. I remain conscious until the hour of my death. Death is soft and painless, you simply relax and give your spirit up, and then...you die.  
  
As my short and pointless life ends, I feel nothing. Nothing but a faint link between two things:  
  
Mein Leben war verloren und schrecken, darum mein Sohn ist frei am Ende.  
My life was wasted and miserable, therfore my son is finally liberated.  
  
DRACO  
~~~  
I drop into the sea, the shallow part of it, not daring to move. How could I have not known? My own father...he assumed it was I who did not love him. How true. I was wrong. But too late, he is dead, he will never be here again. I cannot beg forgiveness from him.  
  
Emotions have effects on us dragons. Our minds are psychologically different from those of humans. Even I felt it when Silketh had first taken me in. This deep and horrid sorrow has taken me over. I feel myself turning back into a human. Slowly, each nerve racked with guilt, I cautiously step towards my father.  
  
"Father..." I whisper. "Why...?"  
  
He has left me forever. Father has punished me. He did love me, I did not appreciate him for who he was or for what he felt. And now I never will get a second chance. My mortal tears are shed in vain. Exhausted from pain and heartache, I fall onto my father and cry myself into a disturbed, poisonous sleep.  
  
Ich liebe dich, Vater. Vergebe.  
I love you, Father. Forgive. 


End file.
